Social+Media+in+Education+Responce

Through TEC 207, Social Media in Education, I have come to learn about new technology, primarily twitter as we use it daily in our homework assignments. In our discussions and research, we have found this social media product to have several advantages and disadvantages in school settings. As a principal whose attention has been brought by another teacher to use twitter to increase the opportunities of academic communication between the school, district, parents, and community for a variety of purposes, I see no harm in implementing this social medium into our district. Understanding that cons include posting of inappropriate material, cyber bullying, and distraction, I see how these disadvantages can be eliminated with education and training. Teachers, parents, and students would have to go through a workshop explaining how to operate twitter including how to compose tweets, how to retweet, ect. They will also learn what people are appropriate to follow and will be banned from following anyone who present themselves negatively and are not good role models. Because everyone can see what it tweeted and posted, appropriate and inappropriate tweets will be modeled for all. Any inappropriate tweet will be removed by a principal or the schools I.T. Simply, the disadvantages can be quickly and easily managed when students, parents, and teacher are educated and when there is a higher official to control the sites activity. Ultimately, I would implement twitter in my school as a principal for the greater good. It opens up a world of communication for students, parents, and teachers that is easily accessible and familiar. Teachers can use this to communicate with parents’ assignments and classroom announcements, post lesson planning or reference sites that they found beneficial in their classroom, activities parents can do with their child on a particular unit, and to communicate with fellow staff members without distracting the whole class. Parents can use twitter to be informed with what is going on with their child’s classroom, ask the teacher or administration if they need help with an event, follow what their child is learning and posting on twitter and communicate with other parents and paraprofessionals to better help their child succeed in learning at home. Finally, students can use twitter to access first hand information about a celebrity, sports figure, etc, that they may be doing a report on, to check their homework, to ask the teachers questions about homework while they are doing it at home, to communicate absences, and so much more. Overall, Twitter has several benefits for parents, teachers, students and the school and community at large when used responsibly and respectfully.

//How to use some social media in your classroom:// a. Pinterest: Pinterest for me is a great resource to find activities, experiments, and crafts for my future classroom. I like that in pinning; all of the information is organized and that I can search for my pins too on a certain topic. I also like the community it creates when you pin the same things as another person. For instance, if I pin something about education that comes from someone else’s board, I now have access to see what other teachers are using in their classroom for a particular lesson or unit.

b. Skype: I know several teachers who Skype in their classroom for their students to better understand different cultures and express communication in a different way. A dear friend and Second grade teacher now, Dana Nissen, uses Skype in her class room for her students to give book talks to their sister class in the fourth grade. They also use it to communicate with their sister school in Korea. Students can get first had information when the opportunity to Skype with an author or person they are doing a book report on is available through Skype. Also, presentation like author visits or talks by paraprofessionals may be more readily accessible and save the district money in transportation if it is over Skype.

c. Blogs: Blogs are consistently appearing in every classroom/school from what I have observed in my placements. Blogs are great outlet to publish students work on. When done so, students feel a greater sense of pride in their work and perform better in completion of the task for they know it could be viewed by millions. Also it is a great way to keep parents constantly involved because they can see the classes work too at all times. So rather than just showing off one or two pieces of their child’s work at back to school night, they are allowed to view what their child may do weekly when it is posted on a blog. Some blog sites include BlogSpot and Blogger but always make sure that they are secure and kid user friendly.

d. QR readers: I just download the reader last night and am eager to scan all of the odd looking back and white squares around me. Seriously though, the QR reader can be used as a great motivational tool to get students to read or inquire about a topic that may not interest them initially. When students use the technology to scan the QR’s, they are unlocking a world of information that they may have normally ignored had they not had to access to it through technology. It can also be a great supporter for texts or other teaching materials. For example, when reading a chapter book to older students, a QR imbedded into text that leads students to an animation or picture would engage students and be helpful for overall comprehension especially by struggling readers and ELL students.